Latest / Brandon Fogal Evolution / #102 - Apart from Jesus, there is no hope—None

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#102 - Apart from Jesus, there is no hope—None · Brandon Fogal Evolution

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  Do you ever feel that you are without hope, that there's no purpose or meaning
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  to life, that you're just kind of passing through and you're just searching for significance?
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  I would say that was me for most of my life.
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  Really, I hadn't given it any more thought than what I'm going to eat tomorrow
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  or next week. It was never top of mind.
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  I was just entrenched in the day-to-day,
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  getting grades, getting good grades in school, or so I can go out and get a
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  job and have a family, live the American dream, have and build my own purpose
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  and meaning as opposed to thinking,
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  taking my life to its logical outcome.
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  If I really keep going like this, what's the point?
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  There's really no point. And sometimes you can be in your darkest moments because
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  you really just play out that whole mental thing in your mind of what am I even here for?
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  Today, we're going to break down how do we find hope and really apart from Jesus, there is no hope.
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  My name is Brandon Fogel. This is Evolution. Let's dive into it.
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  So it's a pretty bold statement for me to say apart from Jesus, there is no hope.
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  And if you are a person that does not believe in Christ, you can choose your religion.
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  Choose all the many different religions that are out there or say you're just
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  agnostic and you don't know what to believe. I think a majority of my life,
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  I just went to church and I did what I thought was the right things.
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  And even when I was younger, I always, there were moments where I was like, why don't I steal?
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  Why don't I go out there and murder someone?
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  Why don't I go out there and take advantage of others? And what is holding me
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  back? Because I didn't truly believe in God.
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  And people might be shocked to hear that. How could you say that?
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  How could you ever say that, why would I not murder?
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  Well, apart from Jesus, if there is no God, if we actually just maybe start
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  there, if there is no God, there is no right or wrong.
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  No matter how much you want to make sense of it and try to think there is,
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  if there is no God, and it's either, the law of non-contradiction is it's either true or it isn't.
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  Is there a God or is there not a God?
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  And if there isn't, it is free game. It is, anything goes.
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  So, I mean, I grew up thinking like at times, I can remember times in my life
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  I was like, I'll just go out and steal. I'll just go out and do something, you know?
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  But I was like, but why do I feel bad if I do that?
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  What is that something, guilt or something that makes me kind of restrain me
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  from doing whatever is in my heart? What is stopping me from doing that?
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  What is deterring me from doing that? And I could never, ever piece it together.
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  I grew up in church. I went to church.
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  I learned about God and all that, but I was never asked to make a decision.
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  I was never asked to actually accept Jesus and trust in Jesus and give my life to Jesus.
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  And really, it does come down to a decision.
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  We have to make a decision at some point in our life, whether we're going to choose to follow.
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  And it's like, you either have to be all in, or there's no point to even messing with this stuff.
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  You can't just be a Christmas and Easter Christian.
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  I'm going to go on certain days just to do the right thing when it doesn't change
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  the rest of your life. You either got to be all in or not at all. There's no point.
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  And why do I say there is no hope apart from Jesus?
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  Well, I want to look at it first of all, from the biblical perspective.
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  In Ephesians chapter two, Paul writing to an assembly of believers that is primarily Gentile.
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  And he says, he's writing to them, he says, therefore, remember that at one
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  time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the
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  circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.
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  Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the
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  commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise,
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  having no hope and without God in the world.
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  I mean, if I'm a first century Christian at that time, I mean,
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  you're in the, you're in the assembly, but maybe somebody is there.
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  That's not, they're just, they've just been drugged there by their wife and
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  they're thinking without hope. What are you talking about?
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  Somebody's reading this in front of the congregation. They're just reading it
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  in front of everybody. And you're like, why would I be without hope?
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  Well, just think about it. If we just actually play this out,
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  if we just, if everything is secular and nothing lasts after we,
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  our head goes into the dirt, we take our final breath.
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  If there, if there is no G, if we don't have not trusted in Jesus,
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  we absolutely have no hope. There's no reason.
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  Like the game is off. The TV is turned off, lights out.
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  So, I mean, there, when we're talking about hope, we're talking about something
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  that extends beyond this life.
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  And so it's either you got to be all in on I'm going to get as much out of this
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  life as humanly possible, suck up all the pleasures in life that I can imagine,
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  fill my cup with every heart's desire that I have, or is there a reason maybe to not do that?
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  Is there a reason that, that is, what is that, that law, something that is outside
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  of us that is actually constraining us to live for something beyond the grave.
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  Apart from Jesus, we die.
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  It's over game match. It's over. There's nothing, nothing left,
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  but with Jesus that changes everything.
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  And Paul's bold statement right there is apart from Jesus, you had no hope.
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  You were without God. You were separated from light.
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  You had nothing to live for. There was no point.
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  And that's very hard for people. And I know anybody that's out there that is
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  not a Christian, because I was the same way.
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  Before I became a Christian, if anybody was speaking to me about anything like
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  this, it would have been like they were talking to a wall.
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  They were talking to a wall, and there was nothing penetrating and making sense at all.
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  Because you can talk about all that fairy tales and imaginary gods out there
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  that you want to, or this imaginary different universe or this different realm
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  that you want to talk about.
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  All I see is what's in front of me. That's all we have.
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  And so it doesn't make sense. It doesn't compute at all.
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  And I just know, and from the Bible, it makes it clear that apart from the Holy
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  Spirit, apart from somebody opening someone's eyes, it never will make sense.
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  It just, it doesn't make sense whatsoever.
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  It does not, it's like trying to program something that is not built to be programmed.
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  Trying to make something a jet engine that is just a little tool that doesn't
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  have the right components to advance and become something greater.
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  And that's why the struggle is, well, do we make the decision or is it God doing it?
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  And it's like, yes. The answer is yes.
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  We make the decision and God is doing it. So it's like how this all works together, I don't know.
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  But it's like, I know this is tough for some people to get on board with because
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  we see everyone else out in this world that we're gonna encounter and when we
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  go about our day, we're gonna run into people that are not, this is not what
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  they're thinking about.
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  They're thinking about Netflix and TikTok and social media.
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  And when I'm in front of people, how am I going to not look like a fool?
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  How am I going to actually advance my life and make this life something worth
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  living and look like I got everything together with everyone else?
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  It's just, it's a game of everybody. We think everybody is looking at us and
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  everybody cares what we're thinking, as opposed to there's something beyond all this.
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  There's something greater than all this that we just are just.
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  Blinded by what is two feet in front of us, as opposed to there is something greater out there.
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  There is something much greater to live for.
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  And this is a bold statement by saying there is no hope apart from Christ.
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  And the Bible makes it clear.
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  And just logically, being a rational person, if you actually think about this.
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  Apart from Jesus, what is it going to extend beyond the grave?
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  Because we're not going to be here in a hundred years. None of us are going
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  to be here in a hundred years.
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  So what is going to, but we think we are, it feels like we are going to.
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  And also the Bible says that God has put eternity into our hearts.
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  And that's why we crave meaning.
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  We crave significance. We crave purpose. Because if there is no purpose,
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  why don't we just, like everyone else does, eat and drink for tomorrow we die.
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  So we're going to take another look at why there is hope and why with Jesus,
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  there is something much greater to live for.
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  And that is from, we're going to look at 1 Corinthians 15. This is talking about the resurrection.
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  As we are approaching Easter, as we are getting ready for Good Friday and Jesus
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  going to the cross, as we are remembering that event that happened.
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  And without the interpretation of the Bible, that is just a guy 2,000 years
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  ago being crucified when thousands of other people were crucified all the time.
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  But the Bible makes it that there was an actual cosmic event happening when
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  Jesus, the man from Nazareth, was being crucified on the cross.
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  He was actually paying a debt he did not owe.
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  He was the perfect lamb of God. And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15,
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  talking about the resurrection.
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  And he's going to bring up some names. He's going to name drop.
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  He's going to name drop the disciples. And he's going to also name drop the
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  brother of Jesus, James, who was somebody who did not believe in his own brother
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  throughout his life, mocked him, made fun of him.
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  Did not, he was not spiritually aware of who was in the same house with him his whole life.
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  He just looked up to him and just probably just thought his brother was just goody two shoes.
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  But after Jesus is resurrected, it says that Jesus appeared specifically to
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  his brother James and showed him all those things that I was doing throughout
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  my life and the claims I was making.
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  It's true. I'm standing before you. You just saw me crucified and I'm raised.
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  So we're going to read from 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and we're going to go through the account.
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  And this is Paul passing along just tradition. He's not creating something out
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  of thin air. This is creedal statements that he's passing along.
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  This is the wording that he uses.
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  Chapter 15, verses one, it says, Now I would remind you, brothers,
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  of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
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  and by which you are saved. If you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
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  unless you believed and veined.
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  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received,
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  that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried,
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  that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that
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  he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12.
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  This is, this is creedal statement. He is, he's passing along tradition.
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  And then he goes on and he says, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers
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  at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
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  That's like, you want to check me?
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  I'm putting my, my neck out of the line. I'm saying there were 500,
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  that most of them are still living and that have some have fallen asleep.
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  That is some have passed away, but some are still living. You can go and check
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  with them. See if they corroborate what I'm giving to you.
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  And then he gives this statement. Then he appeared to James,
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  then to all the apostles.
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  And then he throws himself in there. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
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  For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because
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  I persecuted the church of God. So those are the guys.
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  This is the foundation of what you say, the church.
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  That in itself, labels just can throw people off. That's just a word that we've created.
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  Whereas the church didn't just start when Jesus came. This is God's people throughout history.
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  Whoever is God on the bandwagon of trusting in God, because God,
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  from the beginning, he gave promise that he would save. He would save humanity.
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  Humans fell. That's why we are living in this jacked up world. This world is messed up.
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  This world is evil. You go to Twitter, you see how messed up this world is.
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  I, things that I thought, like, if I, before Twitter came along,
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  I thought I would be entertained by all this crazy stuff that we see daily that
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  is just put in front of us.
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  I, I, I can read the handwriting on the wall when I, when I'm scrolling through
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  Twitter, some, just the caption of what the title says.
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  I just can't even take a look at it because it's so freaking messed up.
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  So many things that are out there that just are just going to just bombard my mind.
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  I can't even look at it. Just people getting smashed over the head.
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  People in fights, just doing evil, terrible things. And we see evil daily.
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  We see it, but we don't have to look outside of ourselves too far to realize
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  we got something messed up going on in our own hearts.
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  And if you want to understand why this world is messed up, look at yourself
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  and then try to do what you think is right and see how hard it is because it
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  is extremely hard to do what is right.
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  If you really get into it and you want to start doing good or doing what is
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  not naturally at your hand and what is like naturally comes easily for you,
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  trying to go against that and sacrificing yourself.
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  Dying to yourself, crucifying yourself,
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  following Jesus, actually doing that, you see how hard it is because we are
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  wired in a messed up way right now.
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  But the apostles and Jesus, they are the foundation of the church, what we call the church.
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  I mean, it's all been built up. It was prophesied from the Old Testament.
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  The prophets declared that Christ was coming, that God was going to save the world.
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  They didn't understand how, and then the apostles come and then they lay that
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  foundation of Jesus's teaching and what the good news is.
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  That we can go out there and we can tell people, you can have hope.
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  You can literally have hope. And something that's going to give you joy in this
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  life, but something that's going to extend much further beyond this life.
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  And it is tough. It is very tough. But it's like, if Jesus isn't who he said
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  he was, if Jesus wasn't resurrected, the Bible makes it clear that we are,
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  as Christians, the most pitiable people on the planet.
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  Nobody should take a second glance at us.
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  People should feel bad, extremely bad for us.
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  If we are wrong, that means we would be liars of who God is.
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  We would be giving a false witness of who Jesus is and of God because we would
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  be saying that he raised this man, Jesus from the dead,
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  which if he didn't, we are, we are charging God with something that he did not do. We are blaspheming.
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  If Jesus was not raised from the dead, we are blaspheming against God.
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  But Paul makes it clear and the apostles made it clear. That's why.
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  They were the ones, they were the eyewitnesses of it. They didn't have Twitter.
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  They didn't have live streaming. They weren't able to record all these things
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  that happened, but they recorded them by writing them down, which actually is
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  much more powerful than just a video.
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  They laid it down with their writings, what they wrote about Christ,
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  but then they also laid it down and their witness was their own blood.
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  And all the apostles died by martyrdom except for John the apostle.
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  But for you, are you searching for hope?
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  Are you trying to find meaning in this world? Look no further than Jesus.
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  If this isn't resonating, if this isn't clicking at all, you're in good company
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  because it didn't make sense to anyone else before they came to Christ.
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  But if you're a person that is willing to even listen to it,
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  that means the one who is outside of this universe is working on you.
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  That means the one outside of this universe is actually coming alongside you
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  and making you interested in this stuff.
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  Because apart from him, you're just going to keep going along your own way and
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  doing your own thing. And there is no hope.
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  You will go to the end of the rainbow of whatever you think in this world,
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  whatever you're concocting as meaning and purpose of why I should even get up
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  and get out of bed each day.
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  And you're going to get to that end of that rainbow and you're going to see,
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  wow, that was so pointless.
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  So, I mean, actually try to think logically and the outcome of your life,
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  if you continue to go about the way that you're going about it,
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  you're going to be left disappointed.
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  And it's free and available.
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  The offer is out there for everyone. If you want purpose and meaning in life,
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  come to Christ and you will have hope that lasts beyond the grave.